On April 8th, a teenager from the Chechen town of Acihoi-Martan was shot and killed after fatally stabbing a police officer. Two days later, the Chechen opposition group NIYSO claimed that local authorities used the incident to send a message by publicly displaying the boy’s body at a gathering, according to the publication Meduza.
Authorities in Acihoi-Martan displayed the body of a teenager who was killed after allegedly attacking a police officer earlier this week, according to the Chechen opposition group NIYSO, which shared images of the incident on Telegram. NIYSO reported that on Wednesday morning, local authorities organized a public gathering in response to the attack that took place two days prior. The group said that teachers, students, local officials, and other public sector employees were forcibly gathered and forced to participate. A 16-second video filmed outside the Acihoi-Martan administrative building shows a large crowd gathered while women can be heard crying in the background.
A young body lies on the pavement. The Caucasus Knot news agency noted that the facial features and hair match those of the person identified in the Chechen press as the alleged attacker. Subsequently, NIYSO posted a second video showing the body still lying in the square after the gathering had ended. “They called us – the NIYSO activists – the organizers of the attack and accused a Ukrainian intelligence officer of coordinating it,” said a member of NIYSO to iStories. “They brought the body of the young man who was killed. They are trying to manipulate people emotionally – to turn them against us and silence our efforts to obtain information.
According to the activist, the Chechen authorities issued an ultimatum to the group: if they do not end their opposition activities, all of their relatives will be expelled from Chechnya and their property will be confiscated within a month. “They used the situation to discredit us,” continued the NIYSO member. “Maybe, as in previous cases, they recruited the guy themselves. He was known for his radical views. That’s usually how it goes – they find young people with extremist tendencies, guide them online, recruit them, and then eliminate them. They needed someone to commit such an attack.” Previously, the state-owned broadcaster ChGTRK Grozny aired a photo of the 17-year-old youth allegedly involved in an attack on a traffic police checkpoint. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claimed that the attacker was killed during the incident and was guided by contacts from Turkey and a Ukrainian citizen. Kadyrov promised a “harsh response” against “each of them.” Commenting on the video of the publicly displayed body, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow does not consider the opposition’s Telegram channels a reliable source of information. Meanwhile, Eva Merkacheva, member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights in Russia, called the public display of the teenager’s body “barbaric” and “medieval” in an interview with Gazeta.ru.
She said: “There is nothing legal about this – nor can there be. Human society has evolved to move beyond bloody disputes, executions, and public displays of violence. What is happening now is, in my opinion, a step backward – culturally and civilizationally. Numerous studies have shown that harsh punishments do not reduce crime, they only reinforce society and can push aggression to dangerous extremes.